After a week at Gerroa (7 mile beach Caravan Park) with 7 grandchildren and two daughters, speedyJenny and I returned home very late today via the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk - brilliant brilliant brilliant - and of course via the Robertson Pie Shop, to encounter back home a day where the temperature range was only 3 to 9. Brrr! And to think we were swimming in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday!!! Many memories, and some words and photos will follow, of our coast holiday.

To start with, the 25k run on the sand on the 25th; I wanted to see if the 7 mile beach was 7 miles, so I ran it. Or at least intended to: I got 12.5k (which is more than 7 miles) and turned back. I THINK the Shoalhaven mouth is blocked by a sand bank which means I ran past my expected turn around point. Anyway the bay itself goes quite a few km further. AND I was wet (rain) and tired (quads in sand) and psyched up only for a 14 mile run.

Here's proof: click to enlarge.

Note the elevation stays close to zero! I had to wear shoes so I had to make 5 or 6 sprints up the sand to keep my feet dry. Tough! Shoes, because a toe was sore after the TUESDAY 15k run on sand in bare feet. Don't do that if you are not used to it. A complete strip of skin was torn off one toe via a blister then a broken blister. Ouch! So I didn't run Wednesday while it healed a bit; hence only 66k for the week.

THIS week I have a couple of days at home to catch up 99 emails & 9 mails before heading off to Adelaide for another week away. So maybe I can do a 60k week? I will have to do a long run in the freezing cold tomorrow, but.

Holidaying at 7 mile beach is recommended. And don't forget the pie shop on the way there and on the way back.

4 comments:

I didn't actually make it to the session at Parliament house today - I did think about it at 4:45 but I pancked about finding my way to Parliament house with no navigator - so that one may have to wait until I move here permanently.Spent the day stocking up on winter running gear - things I never thought I would ever need - like running gloves.I seriously need to acclimatise and spend some time with people learning how to do this.I will attempt to make it to thursday at Dickson - I feel as though Dickson isn't as scary as Parliament house.Andrea

The bottom of my feet and the bottom of my toes in particular may have been a bit raw from wearing frees on the road for the marathon on the 13th. I won't wear them in any future marathon as there was some jarring too. On the other hand, I look like losing only one toe nail: last year with DS trainers I think it was 8 or 9 in the end!